Owning a car in Singapore, one of the world’s most expensive countries, has always been something of a luxury. But costs have now soared to an all time high.
I mean, as far as movement is concerned there's a lot more freedom than in most of the US.
Singapore, you can pretty much get around anywhere you want quickly, safely, and cheaply using any of a variety of transportation modes.
US you're forced to use a car and if you can't afford one you can use someone else's (taxi or rideshare) at a markup. Most people live in places that have no other viable modes, even though 80+% of people live in towns and cities that would have tons of alternatives pretty much anywhere else in the world (and would save money on their municipal budgets in so doing).
Charging people for the social cost of their personal luxuries, especially luxuries that have immense social cost like cars, in order to fund social goods is not something so ridiculously unreasonable. You should probably pick something actually bad if you want to criticize Singapore.
I have total freedom of movement in the USA. I have a car and a motorcycle that are both paid in full, reliable, and efficient, and I live in a beautiful rural area where there is almost zero traffic congestion.
I can drive anywhere I want with total control over my own direction and destination. That is actual freedom.
If you actually live in a rural area, it shouldn't have "almost zero" traffic congestion. There should be actually none. I suspect you don't actually live in a rural area – you probably live in a faux-rural suburb of an actual town that you need to regularly go to. And again, nearly everywhere else in the world someone living in such a place would have choices for how to do that. Take a bike ride, hop on a train, jump in your car, whatever you feel like that day.
If you actually live in the country, you're not actually getting in your car to make trips often at all because most of the time, you're staying on your property. You're self-supporting. If your lifestyle requires making long trips on the roads and highways every day, you're relying on massive government infrastructure spending to conduct your business. You have to either pay your fair share for that infrastructure – which is WAY more than any current vehicle and fuel taxes could even get CLOSE to supporting – or else you're going to have to accept that your lifestyle is only possible thanks to others subsidizing it.
Others who don't want the same things you want. Others whose idea of freedom is to be able to decide for themselves instead of having someone else pick for them.
I mean, as far as movement is concerned there's a lot more freedom than in most of the US.
Singapore, you can pretty much get around anywhere you want quickly, safely, and cheaply using any of a variety of transportation modes.
US you're forced to use a car and if you can't afford one you can use someone else's (taxi or rideshare) at a markup. Most people live in places that have no other viable modes, even though 80+% of people live in towns and cities that would have tons of alternatives pretty much anywhere else in the world (and would save money on their municipal budgets in so doing).
Charging people for the social cost of their personal luxuries, especially luxuries that have immense social cost like cars, in order to fund social goods is not something so ridiculously unreasonable. You should probably pick something actually bad if you want to criticize Singapore.
I have total freedom of movement in the USA. I have a car and a motorcycle that are both paid in full, reliable, and efficient, and I live in a beautiful rural area where there is almost zero traffic congestion.
I can drive anywhere I want with total control over my own direction and destination. That is actual freedom.
If you actually live in a rural area, it shouldn't have "almost zero" traffic congestion. There should be actually none. I suspect you don't actually live in a rural area – you probably live in a faux-rural suburb of an actual town that you need to regularly go to. And again, nearly everywhere else in the world someone living in such a place would have choices for how to do that. Take a bike ride, hop on a train, jump in your car, whatever you feel like that day.
If you actually live in the country, you're not actually getting in your car to make trips often at all because most of the time, you're staying on your property. You're self-supporting. If your lifestyle requires making long trips on the roads and highways every day, you're relying on massive government infrastructure spending to conduct your business. You have to either pay your fair share for that infrastructure – which is WAY more than any current vehicle and fuel taxes could even get CLOSE to supporting – or else you're going to have to accept that your lifestyle is only possible thanks to others subsidizing it.
Others who don't want the same things you want. Others whose idea of freedom is to be able to decide for themselves instead of having someone else pick for them.